Steve Nash Fitness World

Steve Nash Fitness World Order Description Assignments: Introduction Be sure to check the FAQs should you have any questions about the assignments. In your fin" rel="nofollow">inal assignment, you will analyze the organization’s situation, propose some strategies, and then recommend one of those strategies along with the most important actions the organization must undertake to implement it. Your assignment will be based on an organization of your choosin" rel="nofollow">ing. It can be a small, private organization; it can be a large, publicly traded company. It can be an organization with which you are in" rel="nofollow">involved or an organization in" rel="nofollow">in which you are in" rel="nofollow">interested. You should immediately start thin" rel="nofollow">inkin" rel="nofollow">ing about the organization you will choose for Assignment 3 and, once you make your decision, submit it for approval (by completin" rel="nofollow">ing Assignment 0). Shortly thereafter, one of the Academic Experts will let you know if your selection has been approved. If not, you will have to choose another organization. The decision of the Academic Expert may not be appealed. Choosin" rel="nofollow">ing an Organization In choosin" rel="nofollow">ing an organization for Assignment 3, keep in" rel="nofollow">in min" rel="nofollow">ind that you will need to access a lot of in" rel="nofollow">information about the organization. Most importantly, perhaps, you will need access to its fin" rel="nofollow">inancial in" rel="nofollow">information. This is not a problem for publicly traded corporations. And it’s usually not a problem with non-profit organizations. However, privately held corporations may be more reluctant to share this sort of in" rel="nofollow">information with outsiders. Therefore, you should confirm that you will be able to get access to the necessary in" rel="nofollow">information before you seek permission to analyze the organization in" rel="nofollow">in Assignment 3. You should also confirm that this organization does not object to you revealin" rel="nofollow">ing some of this in" rel="nofollow">information to your marker/professor. Somethin" rel="nofollow">ing else to keep in" rel="nofollow">in min" rel="nofollow">ind when choosin" rel="nofollow">ing your organization is that your analysis must reflect the organization’s current situation. Any significant developments happenin" rel="nofollow">ing more than a month prior to the submission of your assignment must be reflected in" rel="nofollow">in your analysis. So just to clarify, you cannot, for example, analyze Google’s situation in" rel="nofollow">in 2007. Assignments: Markin" rel="nofollow">ing For both pedagogical and evaluative purposes, your assignments must be organized in" rel="nofollow">into the predetermin" rel="nofollow">ined sections described in" rel="nofollow">in the markin" rel="nofollow">ing rubric. In each section, the maximum score you can get is 20. In addition, you can score as high as 20 for presentation. That said, your mark on the assignment is not the simple sum of these scores. Instead, each section is weighted, and this weightin" rel="nofollow">ing changes from one assignment to the next. It is extremely important that you consider the weightin" rel="nofollow">ing of each section when you prepare your assignments. You should let the weightin" rel="nofollow">ing dictate the amount of space you devote to each section. It will always be possible to say much, much more in" rel="nofollow">in each section, so you must decide just how much you are goin" rel="nofollow">ing to say. If you say more, you may get a higher grade on that section. However, if that section is weighted a lot less than other sections in" rel="nofollow">in which you could say more, you are probably better off to use the space for sections with a higher weightin" rel="nofollow">ing. The table below contain" rel="nofollow">ins the weightin" rel="nofollow">ing for each section in" rel="nofollow">in each assignment. Note as well the word limits for each assignment. This limit does not in" rel="nofollow">include the title page or exhibits (up to 10 pages), but it does in" rel="nofollow">include any tables within" rel="nofollow">in the body of the report. Assignments that exceed the specified limits will be returned without gradin" rel="nofollow">ing. If the assignment still exceeds the word limit on the second submission, a grade of zero will be assigned. Executive Summary 5% Introduction & Company Overview 5% Mandate 10% External Analysis 15% Internal Analysis 15% Strategic Options 20% Recommendation/Implementation 20% Presentation 10% Maximum Words 4500 Weight (% of fin" rel="nofollow">inal grade) 40% Assignments: Guidelin" rel="nofollow">ines To understand what is expected in" rel="nofollow">in the assignments, be sure to examin" rel="nofollow">ine the Assignment Examples. These are well-written assignments from previous students. As in" rel="nofollow">indicated previously, your assignments must be divided in" rel="nofollow">into predetermin" rel="nofollow">ined sections. It is important that you fully understand what is expected in" rel="nofollow">in each section. To help you, each section is described below. Executive Summary As its name suggest, the Executive Summary should summarize the document’s contents. While this may seem obvious, far too often an Executive Summary in" rel="nofollow">introduces a document rather than summarizin" rel="nofollow">ing it. To avoid this, it is imperative that you keep in" rel="nofollow">in min" rel="nofollow">ind that an Executive Summary should stand on its own. Thin" rel="nofollow">ink of it as a thumbnail image on a website. The goal in" rel="nofollow">in displayin" rel="nofollow">ing a thumbnail is to reduce the download time or to allow you to see multiple images simultaneously. If you like one of the images, you can click on it to see a more detailed (i.e., higher resolution) version. The same goes for an Executive Summary. It should provide a rough idea of the document’s contents but should save the details for those who are sufficiently in" rel="nofollow">interested to read the entire document. It is essential that an Executive Summary not be too long. Actual length often depends on the length of the document bein" rel="nofollow">ing described. It also depends on professional norms. That said, it would be unusual for an Executive Summary to be more than 10% of the entire document. And more often than not, it would be closer to 5% of the overall length, particularly when there is a word limit on the length of the overall document (as is the case with your assignments). Introduction & Company Overview The Introduction & Company Overview should in" rel="nofollow">introduce the reader to the report. Sin" rel="nofollow">ince your report is focused on a sin" rel="nofollow">ingle organization, among other thin" rel="nofollow">ings, it should in" rel="nofollow">introduce thatorganization. In the first two assignments, the organization will not need much of an in" rel="nofollow">introduction sin" rel="nofollow">ince the marker will have read the case on which your assignment is based. But in" rel="nofollow">in Assignment 3, you cannot assume that the marker knows anythin" rel="nofollow">ing at all about the organization. For this reason, it is essential for you to provide sufficient context to make sense of the subsequent sections. Toward this end, you may also need to in" rel="nofollow">introduce the organization’s in" rel="nofollow">industry. Author(s) of analytical documents often discuss the limitations of their report. This may happen in" rel="nofollow">in a separate section toward the end, or even in" rel="nofollow">in the conclusion. However, because you are not required to provide a conclusion to your report, you ought to discuss any limitations in" rel="nofollow">in your Introduction & Company Overview. While you need not go in" rel="nofollow">into too much detail, you should at least identify the sources or assumptions on which your report depends. Additionally, you may wish to identify the sources or in" rel="nofollow">information that would enable you to provide a more detailed or more confident analysis. Mandate In Lesson 1 and Lesson 2, you will learn about organizations’ mandates. Briefly, an organization’s mandate describes why it exists, what it hopes to accomplish, and the limits to what it will do. Every organization has a mandate and many make their mandate, or at least a portion of it, explicit in" rel="nofollow">in the form of Mission Statements, Visions, Core Values, etc.However, as you will learn, these public declarations often have more to do with win" rel="nofollow">indow dressin" rel="nofollow">ing than guidin" rel="nofollow">ing the organization’s actions. The publicly stated Mandate is not always the same as the assumed mandate. It is important to recognize this distin" rel="nofollow">inction for it is the latter that you are to provide in" rel="nofollow">in your assignments, not the former. In your assignments, your mandate should be divided in" rel="nofollow">into four elements. The first is the Mission Statement or Core Purpose. The second is the Vision and/or Major Goals. Third is the organization’s Core Values or, alternatively, its Guidin" rel="nofollow">ing Prin" rel="nofollow">inciples. The fin" rel="nofollow">inal element is the Stakeholder Analysis. Each of the foregoin" rel="nofollow">ing should be kept relatively brief—even briefer than they might be in" rel="nofollow">in reality. So while some organizations might have lengthy Mission Statements, your Mission Statement or Core Purpose should be no longer than a couple of sentences. The same is true of the Vision and/or Major Goals. Ideally, an organization’s vision will be quite detailed. However, you should need just a few sentences to convey your understandin" rel="nofollow">ing of what the organization hopes to be and/or accomplish in" rel="nofollow">in the long term. This also applies to the organization’s Major Goals. If your organization has more than a handful, you need in" rel="nofollow">include in" rel="nofollow">in your assignments only the five or six that convey the most important outcomes. As with the other elements of the Mandate, the Core Values/Guidin" rel="nofollow">ing Prin" rel="nofollow">inciples should reflectyour impressions of the organization’s core values. This is particularly important if your organization has a Code of Conduct, which is often quite detailed. It’s up to you to distill this code in" rel="nofollow">into a handful of values or prin" rel="nofollow">inciples that convey how this organization expects its representatives to conduct themselves. Somewhere between five and ten values or prin" rel="nofollow">inciples ought to suffice within" rel="nofollow">in the context of your assignments. Stakeholder Analysis is the fin" rel="nofollow">inal element of the Mandate. A full-blown stakeholder analysis can be a report unto itself. For your assignments, all that is required is a list of the mostimportant stakeholders and their most important implications for the organization you are analyzin" rel="nofollow">ing. External Analysis An External Analysis is a review of the organization’s in" rel="nofollow">industry, as well as the societal forces that shape it. Usually, the objective of an external analysis is to identify an organization’s opportunities and threats. When an organization can in" rel="nofollow">increase the size of its operations or accrue more benefits from its existin" rel="nofollow">ing operations, it has opportunities. When there is potential for reduced activity levels or for fewer benefits from these activities, the organization is facin" rel="nofollow">ing threats. Needless to say, the goal of every organization is to exploit its opportunities and elimin" rel="nofollow">inate its threats. Lesson 3 provides you with a variety of tools with which to carry out an External Analysis. Ideally, each of these tools should be utilized. The usefulness of a particular tool will vary dependin" rel="nofollow">ing on the organization and its circumstances. Nevertheless, whenever possible, and to the degree possible, you should attempt to use each tool. That said, you should not in" rel="nofollow">include the results of these attempts in" rel="nofollow">in the body of your assignments. If in" rel="nofollow">included at all, they should be in" rel="nofollow">in Exhibits at the end of the report. In the body of your report, you should in" rel="nofollow">instead provide a well-argued statement of the organization’s opportunities and threats that builds on the analyses you undertook with the tools from Lesson 3. The manner in" rel="nofollow">in which you organize the External Analysis section is up to you. You will need to consider the in" rel="nofollow">information you have at your disposal and how much space you in" rel="nofollow">intend to devote to this section. This decision, in" rel="nofollow">in turn, will depend on how much space you thin" rel="nofollow">ink you need for other sections. So before you write this section, make sure you have a clear vision of the structure of your report, its argument, and the emphasis to be given to each section. Internal Analysis In contrast with an External Analysis, which examin" rel="nofollow">ines the world of which the organization is a part, an Internal Analysis looks in" rel="nofollow">inward at the organization itself. Ideally, it provides an objective assessment of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses. Needless to say, strengths and weaknesses are relative measures and, for this reason, an Internal Analysis does make reference to the world outside the organization. Even so, the emphasis is decidedly in" rel="nofollow">internal with the Internal Analysis bein" rel="nofollow">ing, on the one hand, an in" rel="nofollow">inventory of what the organization has and, on the other, an in" rel="nofollow">inventory of what it can do (and how well it does it). Some of the tools with which an Internal Analysis is carried out are described in" rel="nofollow">in Lesson 4.As with the External Analysis, the utility of these tools will vary from case to case. And here as well, you are not expected to in" rel="nofollow">include the raw results of the tools’ application in" rel="nofollow">in your reports. Instead, you are once again" rel="nofollow">in expected to sift through these results and, after considerin" rel="nofollow">ing how much space you will devote to the Internal Analysis, to decide which in" rel="nofollow">information you are goin" rel="nofollow">ing to in" rel="nofollow">include. As above, how this in" rel="nofollow">information is organized is up to you. In the end, what you will be evaluated on is the specific strengths and weaknesses you identify and the level of support that you provide for them. Strategic Options In this section, you are expected to provide three distin" rel="nofollow">inct strategies for the organization bein" rel="nofollow">ing analyzed along with a balanced assessment of each strategy. In the context of thissection, strategy is used in" rel="nofollow">in the broadest sense. In fact, it might even be better to in" rel="nofollow">invoke the concept of a “busin" rel="nofollow">iness model” here, provided that it is used in" rel="nofollow">in the broad sense described in" rel="nofollow">in your textbook. Whatever the term, you are required to put forward three distin" rel="nofollow">inct directions in" rel="nofollow">in which the organization might go in" rel="nofollow">in its efforts to carry out its mission and realize its vision. The Collis and Rukstad (2008) article from Lesson 1 explain" rel="nofollow">ins how a strategy can be articulated in" rel="nofollow">in a sentence or two. As well, the five basic elements of a strategy are described in" rel="nofollow">in the Hambrick and Frederickson article assigned in" rel="nofollow">in Lesson 5. Briefly, these in" rel="nofollow">include the differentiators, the arenas, the vehicles, the stagin" rel="nofollow">ing, and the economic model. If not explicitly, then implicitly you will describe each of these for each strategy. It is also expected that the strategies you propose will be compatible with the organization’s mandate and its situation. And in" rel="nofollow">in that regard, it is assumed that you will provide an assessment of each strategy that allows its pros and cons to be compared with those of the other strategies. Recommendation and Implementation In the Strategic Options section of your reports, you are expected to identify several options for the organization bein" rel="nofollow">ing analyzed. In this fin" rel="nofollow">inal section of your report, you are expected to recommend one of those options and then elaborate on it. More specifically, you are expected to provide some guidance with respect to how the recommended option ought to be implemented. In this section, you need not review the details you provided in" rel="nofollow">in the previous section. Nevertheless, you may end up doin" rel="nofollow">ing so as you elaborate on the strategy you have recommended. The goal in" rel="nofollow">in this section is to address implementation issues. On one side of the coin" rel="nofollow">in are the thin" rel="nofollow">ings that the organization will need to do, and for these you will draw heavily on the ideas presented in" rel="nofollow">in Lesson 12 and Lesson 13. On the other side of the coin" rel="nofollow">in are the thin" rel="nofollow">ings that can go wrong, meanin" rel="nofollow">ing the thin" rel="nofollow">ings the organization needs to watch out for. What are the key risks? What could stop the strategy you have proposed from bein" rel="nofollow">ing successful? And what, if anythin" rel="nofollow">ing, can be done in" rel="nofollow">in the event that somethin" rel="nofollow">ing does go wrong? The challenge in" rel="nofollow">in writin" rel="nofollow">ing this section will be decidin" rel="nofollow">ing what should and should not be in" rel="nofollow">included. You could easily use up all of the space in" rel="nofollow">in your report (and much, much more) on implementation issues alone. Thus, you will need to have a clear sense of the amount of space you can devote to this section and the in" rel="nofollow">information that ought to be in" rel="nofollow">included. This decision will depend in" rel="nofollow">in part on the organization bein" rel="nofollow">ing analyzed. If it’s a very large organization, the implementation effort may be outlin" rel="nofollow">ined at a very high level of abstraction. If it’s a small organization, it may get in" rel="nofollow">into specific details regardin" rel="nofollow">ing particular in" rel="nofollow">individuals, processes, or products. Exhibits Your assignment may contain" rel="nofollow">in up to ten pages of exhibits. These exhibits will not be markedper se and, in" rel="nofollow">in fact, may not even be examin" rel="nofollow">ined. Nevertheless, they could have an in" rel="nofollow">influence on your mark if the marker decides that somethin" rel="nofollow">ing you suggested in" rel="nofollow">in the body of your assignment would be significant if it were better substantiated. For example, you may wish to provide pro forma fin" rel="nofollow">inancial statements as an exhibit in" rel="nofollow">in order to support your earnin" rel="nofollow">ings projections. As with the word count, if you exceed the limit of ten pages of exhibits, your assignment will be returned to you unmarked. And should this happen more than once, you will receive a grade of zero on the assignment.